Chez

decent assessment that. He gOt about the pitch a little better last season, so let's hope we see continued progression in that area. If we don't he will continue to underwhelm many.

It's really not that hard to spot a top one. They jump out at you, there are so few.

This is the **** that was banned from training horses for three years (reduced to 18 months on appeal) specifically for neglecting his horses, who when interviewed some time later said "there was no cruelty or neglect, nothing like that".

like us they seem to have a good eye for centre backs.

Hard to say as I didn't watch those Chelsea games, but he won motm in his first few games that season and he did play in the CL final too. I think it's fair to say he has improved so let's hope Targett does the same. Looked bright in the first half of the Brentford game that I saw, but let's see how he does up against the likes of Zaha who has made him look a mug in the past.

Playing devils advocate here, if he was at say West Brom, would you want us to go out and buy him and for how much?

got to ask why all the top six are not busting a gut to sign him, do none of them think he is worth £65m?

Turned down Spurs to ensure he got first team football.

I was going to type the same thing. He has also played right back a fair bit too, showing his versatility. I guess whilst Cedric and Bertrand are here he/we might be reluctant to make that move, but the fact his coach has said that once he fills out he will make a decent CB means he could get games no matter what. I've seen him linked with United, but so was Clyne and he came to us. Maybe he is too expensive for us now?

gonna need a shed load of fuel of some sort to turn all those turbines needed to power those fackers. By then, them and China will own everything worth owning

especially if unlike Arsenal, they have to front up a serious wedge to sign him

oil

Agree journalists speak much better about the game than ex footballers. Winter is a bit of a tosser though.

agreed. He also offers a different angle. Footballers just see the same thing. Not sure why the commentators are not used as pundits. They see hundreds of games, do **** load of research so have a real knowledge of the game, get up close with the current players and managers and beyond, plus....THEY SPEAK WELL. Another question, why on earth isn't BBC's chief football correspondent Phil McNulty used as a pundit? Much much mcuyh ratgher have himprsnet 606 than ****ing savage. Having sadd of that I do think Jemaine Jenas is excellent on the radio.

by man on the street he means a non ex footballer, but someone that speaks eloquently on TV or radio - not some random, guy dragged out of a pub. If you are employed to speak with insight on TV, the very least you should be able to do is, er, speak well. My point is that these footballers are robbing a living off better qualified people.

BBC has no advertisers to pamper to, so why would it need clickbait? Besides I'm talking about TV and radio. By the way, I am on the BBC website every day and I doubt I have ever read a Savage, Sutton or Shearer ghosted article. Couldn't give a **** what they think about the game to be honest. I don't take Savage or Clinton Morrison seriously, do you, but I do listen intently to the likes of Tim Vickery and guillem balague. They offer genuine insight and real knowledge. Shearer gets paid £400,000 a year by the BBC, but his knowledge of the world game is woeful. He just tells people what they already know.

why do pundits always have to be ex footballers? This job requires the person to speak well...about football. They don' have dribble, tackle, shoot or run for 90 minutes., So why do they get every single punditry job? Half of them struggle to put two words together, the other half just tell us what we know week after week after week. I know some people have multiple talents, but a good footballer doesn't necessarily equal a good speaker. Ok, so they have some insight into the game, but they all seem to see exactly the same things every week. MOTD for example tends to have two or three pundits that 9 times out of 10 agree with each other...on everything. I see no point whatsoever in employing two people to do the same job. By no means perfect, but when journalists are employed to speak on radio shows like the Monday night football, they bring a completely different opinion and angle to proceedings. In my eyes this job should be given to someone that firstly speaks well, identifies things that perhaps others have not seen and gives fresh input to proceedings, not simply telling us what we already know. To a degree the BBC has served up different opinions in the form of Savage and Sutton, but sadly they have gone down the route of employing controversial big mouths rather than clever thinkers. Certainly there are some decent pundits out there, but when I see people like Clinton Morrison being employed by Channel 5 to talk about the game I wonder if TV producers just lack the balls to say **** this, we'll get a man off the street that speaks well to be the pundit rather than just any old player they can get hold of to fill a sofa.

and Dier and Carter-Vickers...

I cant be arsed trying to find a player that can play in every position. Where does a 7 play by the way? Who cares? All that matters is finding a player that can play in an attacking role, which Gray can.

no idea what a 7,9,10 and 11 rolled into one is. I thought the aim was to replace Long, should he leave? Agree the ship has sailed on King, probably on Gray too.

My knowledge of European football is woeful, so forgive me for going for well known English based players, but Demarai Gray and Josh King would add some much needed pace back into our attack. Gray tore us to pieces, albeit demonstrating Long-like finishing in that game. I suggested him when he was at Brum and still think he has great potential, if not somewhat expensive. King is another that would cost the earth now.

fair point. What I meant was that, unlike all of those mentioned, I think he might believe he get a move to another CL club that pay the big wages.

Using my valuable time to read this post. Mistake.

wearing cycling shorts is a worry. We have had too many biggest signings with injury problems. He doesn't look like a defensive midfielder to me, not that that's a problem.

could not have put it better. Our failure to genuinely compete in games against the top sides is down to very average players in midfield such as Clasie. We must find better if we are to get back to the great days of Morgan and Wanyama dominating a midfield area/game. Hoj needs to pass to someone in the same team before he is of any use to us.